Award Banner
Award Banner

'About ready to kill somebody': Guy Pearce struggled to cope with fame and success after making switch to Hollywood

'About ready to kill somebody': Guy Pearce struggled to cope with fame and success after making switch to Hollywood
PHOTO: Instagram/@bysaramorandi

Guy Pearce felt like he was "ready to kill somebody" at the height of his fame.

The 53-year-old actor shot to prominence on the Australian soap Neighbours and after making the switch to Hollywood, he struggled to cope with his own fame and success.

He shared: "I went to America still carrying this baggage of not believing in myself or the value of my work, so I was extremely picky.

"I had people around me saying I should do a superhero film, but I was only interested in films that felt heavy and psychological. I'd done five films back-to-back and was pretty spent, turning up to work every morning and growling at people. I was battling with myself all the time over whether it's just ridiculous and childish, faking stuff for a living."

Guy - whose film credits include L.A. Confidential, The Hurt Locker and The King's Speech - ultimately decided to take some time off because he was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the stresses of the industry.

[[nid:547002]]

He told The Independent: "I was about ready to kill somebody, to be honest, so I took 18 months off, had a big old think about it and a bit of a lie-down and came back thinking actually, this is something that will keep me young.

"It's a wonderful, youthful perspective on life. It was the decision of a thirty-something man, not an eight-year-old boy."

Guy played the part of Mike Young on Neighbours in the 1980s and he struggled to "make sense" of his own fame at the time.

He said: "I hated the fame thing, really struggled with it.

"I knew Neighbours wasn't Shakespeare, but I was doing my best while knowing that I wasn't doing a great job - and yet, screaming girls chased us down the street. Trying to make sense of that was quite a test."

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.